The Percy Essay
I can understand why people dislike Percy. In real life, I’m sure there would be moments where I got fed up with Percy. But overall, I /love/ Percy Weasley. <33
And I’ll tell you why. :)
Percy is an incredibly hard worker. He is one of the only students we know of who achieved top grades in all of his O.W.L.s (surpassing Hermione, who is a “borderline genius” according to Jo) and passed with top scores in his N.E.W.T.s as well. Within a month or so of graduating school, Percy goes on to secure a position at the Ministry. At the age of seventeen. He was not even legally an adult for a year yet and he was already working for the government.
While working in his first position, Percy tries to stay focused, engaged, and interested in his work; he’s actually eager to have this job and opportunity, despite the fact that cauldron bottoms are not a particularly interesting subject. He doesn’t just get the job done-he does it meticulously (or it wouldn’t take so long, and even Harry has picked up on this aspect of his personality) as soon as possible (or he would have been more comfortable taking breaks).
Once Crouch Sr. began not to turn up, Percy continued working under him and getting work done. Note that once the whole fiasco with Mr. Crouch happens, Percy was blamed because they felt he should have realized Mr. Crouch was “going mad”; Percy was one of the few people in contact with Crouch Sr. personally and the only person blamed for this, so he was the only one involved with Crouch then and therefore all of Crouch Sr.’s work. Aside from reporting that Mr. Crouch was ill, no one questioned Mr. Crouch’s absence until after the whole Barty thing came out.
This means that Mr. Crouch’s work was getting done-Percy was doing it. Eighteen-year-old Percy was running the Department of International Magical Cooperation, WHILE a huge international event was going on AND right after another huge international event where a crisis happened which would have resulted in backlash for months. Percy ran that department successfully less than a year out of school.
Percy is obviously very intelligent; he is also a good leader. Was he proud of his prefect and Head Boy Status? Yes. But he also proved to be able to perform his duties well. Jo has told us there are probably a thousand or so kids in the school (her numbers change very often, but it seems /her/official count is a few thousand). Out of all of those kids, Percy was picked to be Head Boy. (You don’t have to be prefect to be Head Boy; I am sure Percy was insecure enough-which I’ll get to in just a moment-to fear he wasn’t going to be granted the position.)
Percy’s insecurities are another part of him that I find to be very interesting. Percy is quite secure in what he can accomplish. He scored top in his O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.. He did not get those top grades without studying. LOTS of studying. Hermione doesn’t even achieve top O.W.L.s across the board and she’s a borderline genius. That’s another point though-Hermione studies often because she’s insecure about what she knows. Obviously she DOES know it, but before her exams she’s constantly re-reading the material in a flurry of worry, afraid she’ll forget something. She is not overly confident despite the fact that she has a right to be. It seems pretty clear that Percy would have done even more studying than she did, partially out of necessity and partially out of insecurity (because if you’re scoring top across the board you obviously know your stuff and it wasn’t just a fluke).
Percy also makes a huge deal out of his prefect and Head Boy status. Why? I don’t believe it’s just because he’s a person who loves to brag-there is insecurity there. Becoming a prefect was a relief: it would help him in the future (there’s a reason there’s a book titled “Prefects Who Gained Power”) but it also gave him some claim to his name. We saw Ron feeling inferior, especially in the mirror scene in PS/SS where he wants to have all of the titles his brothers held. I’m sure Percy felt the same way. Bill was prefect and Head Boy-he ALSO achieved all 12 top O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s in his subjects; Charlie was prefect. Becoming a prefect was really /expected/ of Percy and knowing he had gotten the position would have been a relief. The same with becoming Head Boy: He didn’t know he would become Head Boy (since you don’t have to be a prefect to become it), but he desperately wanted the position because it could help him in the future and it would put him on an /equal/ level with one of his brothers. That is all becoming Head Boy did: make him equal with Bill in Percy’s and Molly’s minds and make him not a disappointment (since Molly clearly wants her sons to be high-achieving since that means a better future for them). He was not doing anything new or original-he was simply measuring up.
Percy’s insecurities aren’t just related to his need to achieve, though. He’s secretive. Penelope is a good example. He and Penelope were together for a good period of time. They began dating something during the 1991-1992 school year and went on through the 1993-1994 school year. Over two years in a secondary school is a pretty good length of time-yet for over half of their relationship, Percy didn’t tell his siblings or presumably the rest of his family (since it seems the sort of thing Molly would let slip). Percy was too insecure to tell his family. More specifically, he feared Fred and George’s teasing. If you can call it teasing-they take it too far, too often. There’s a fine line between funny teasing and honestly making someone feel like crap. The twins make Percy feel like crap-often.
“‘How’re we getting to King’s Cross tomorrow, Dad?’ asked Fred as they dug into a sumptuous chocolate pudding.
‘The Ministry’s providing a couple of cars,’ said Mr. Weasley.
Everyone looked up at him.
‘Why?’ said Percy curiously.
‘It’s because of you, Perce,’ said George seriously. ‘And there’ll be little flags on the hoods, with HB on them -’
‘- for Humongous Bighead,’ said Fred.
Everyone except Percy and Mrs. Weasley snorted into their pudding” (US PoA 63).
This is one of the moments that makes me quite irritated. Percy is doing nothing wrong and asked a legitimate question; he is mocked for it despite the fact that the joke is way old. But worst of all? Arthur laughs. Percy’s own /father/ laughs at a remark that was obviously hurtful toward one of his sons. While I love Arthur, that’s not really okay and it’s no wonder Percy finally got fed up with it.
Which brings me to one of my favorite topics: the argument. The more I re-read this section of OotP, the more I realize a) how much it was not mainly Percy’s fault and b) how much I love Percy.
a) “‘Percy and Dad had a row,’ said Fred. ‘I’ve never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It’s normally Mum who shouts. . . .’
‘It was the first week back after term ended,’ said Ron. ‘We were about to come and join the Order. Percy came home and told us he’d been promoted.’
’You’re kidding?’ said Harry.
Though he knew perfectly well that Percy was highly ambitious, Harry’s impression was that Percy had not made a great success of his first job at the Ministry of Magic. Percy had committed the fairly large oversight of failing to notice that his boss was being controlled by Lord Voldemort (not that the Ministry had believed that - they all thought that Mr. Crouch had gone mad).
‘Yeah, we were all surprised,’ said George, ‘because Percy got into a load of trouble about Crouch, there was an inquiry and everything. They said Percy ought to have realized Crouch was off his rocker and informed a superior. But you know Percy, Crouch left him in charge, he wasn’t going to complain....’
‘So how come they promoted him?’
‘That’s exactly what we wondered,’ said Ron, who seemed very keen to keep normal conversation going now that Harry had stopped yelling. ‘He came home really pleased with himself - even more pleased than usual if you can imagine that - and told Dad he’d been offered a position in Fudge’s own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts - Junior Assistant to the Minister. He expected Dad to be all impressed, I think.’
‘Only Dad wasn’t,’ said Fred grimly. ‘Why not?’ said Harry.
’Well, apparently Fudge has been storming round the Ministry checking that nobody’s having any contact with Dumbledore,’ said George.
‘Dumbledore’s name’s mud with the Ministry these days, see,’ said Fred. ‘They all think he’s just making trouble saying You-Know-Who’s back.’
‘Dad says Fudge has made it clear that anyone who’s in league with Dumbledore can clear out their desks,’ said George.
‘Trouble is, Fudge suspects Dad, he knows he’s friendly with Dumbledore, and he’s always thought Dad’s a bit of a weirdo because of his Muggle obsession -’
‘But what’s this got to do with Percy?’ asked Harry, confused.
‘I’m coming to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family - and Dumbledore.’
Harry let out a low whistle.
‘Bet Percy loved that.’
Ron laughed in a hollow sort of way.
‘He went completely berserk. He said - well, he said loads of terrible stuff. He said he’s been having to struggle against Dad’s lousy reputation ever since he joined the Ministry and that Dad’s got no ambition and that’s why we’ve always been - you know - not had a lot of money, I mean -’ (US OotP 71-72).
The situation objectively: Boy at his second job (after his first didn’t last long and ended horribly) comes home to share the news that he’s been offered a really good position at work and hopes his family will be proud of him. (Right after he’s been having a lot of bad luck at work over something he couldn’t really control.) His father, whom he obviously wants to be proud of him (since we’ve seen Molly’s pride but not really Arthur’s), then essentially tells him he’s not being offered the position because he’s right for it, it’s because he’s being used.
Regardless of whether what dad says it’s true, that hurts. Here’s Percy, high achieving and trying his best and he gets this only to be told that it’s not really an achievement. Wouldn’t you be pissed? (I know I would.) And yeah, you’re going to say your loyalty lies with the Ministry when they’ve just given you an opportunity and are treating you better now, especially when your family can’t even bother pretending to be happy for you. While Percy said some harsh things (I’ll touch on that later as well), the initial row was definitely not his fault-or, more specifically, not /all/ his fault or even /mostly/ his fault, something everyone seems to think.
b) I loved Percy a lot for this argument. Not because he said some of the hurtful things but because he /finally/ fought back. He finally stood up for himself, finally was sick and tired of how everyone in his family but his mother treated him. He is treated like crap when he’s hoping his family will be proud of him and he gets bashed for it. His taking this things, declaring his separation from the family, and getting his own flat in London makes me cheer for /him/, because he finally told his family “this is who I am. Deal with it” and he stopped dealing with their abuses. He finally took charge and stood up for himself. And while what he said to his father was harsh, I can totally understand feeling your father was irresponsible and not ambitious because he was never able to adequately provide for all for his children. While it’s great Arthur does what he loves, I can totally understand that bitterness from one of the kids who grew up in a family struggling BECAUSE of a parent’s profession instead of other, less controllable reasons.
Speaking of money, I see that a large reason for Percy’s ambitiousness. It’s clear he felt uncomfortable with the family’s monetary situation-so do the rest of the kids. Ron spends year after year being incredibly embarrassed, especially during the 1994-1995 school year. The twins are incredibly grateful for the start-up money and as soon as they are successfully enough they both by jackets made of the “[f]inest dragon hide”. They make a point to great themselves with the money they’ve earned because they never could. Money is IMPORTANT. to them.
This was the same for Percy. He put in loads of work in school, got a good Ministry position job /right/ out of school, and was on his way to climbing to the top. Even if he didn’t love every duty he was given, I imagine a lot of those positions pay pretty well, particularly Junior Assistant to the Minister. Financial security would be incredibly important to Percy, especially because (and Bill is open to interpretation but I’m not seeing it from him), Percy’s the only Weasley child until HBPish to hold a serious relationship. (In school or no, two-plus years isn’t bad.) I think it’s fair to say a family was probably looming somewhere in his plans for the further, even if not until he achieved more of his higher goals. (I hope some day he did become minister. *hopeful*) The planning-oriented person he is would want to be absolutely sure of financial security before making that step-for his sake and the sake of his children. His family.
Looping back to the family that hated him and the situation there. I’m sure some of you are saying “what about Molly?” right now and how Percy wasn’t good to /her/ and she actually cared for him. True. She went to his flat in London and he slammed the door without letting her speak; he also returned her letter and his jumper unopened. Why? Fear of rejection. He knew Molly was the only family member who cared about him. He did not give her a chance to speak when she came to visit-because knowing she hated him as well or was disappointed in him would be too much to handle. He knew the rest of his family hated him by that point-having /confirmation/ that Molly did, which very well could have been coming, would be worse than just speculating she did. In addition, if he /had/ given her a chance to speak and she’d told him she loved him and wanted him back, how would Percy have felt? He obviously loved his mother: he’d have wanted to go back, reconcile for her sake. For what? To go back to being treated like crap by the rest of his family? Treated worse now, actually, because the Weasleys (Percy include) are stubborn and would not be very forgiving? It would have been a bad situation all around for him and so while I don’t like that he didn’t reconcile with Molly right away I can totally understand why he didn’t.
I want to touch on stubbornness and tenacity as a Weasley family trait right now. Was Percy too stubborn to admit the Ministry was wrong right away? YES. Was Ron too stubborn to reconcile with Harry during Goblet of Fire immediately? Yes. Was Arthur too stubborn to realize where /he/ went wrong in saying something and apologize to his still-teenaged son? YES.
Just because Percy is stubborn, one of the many traits he actually /shares/ with his siblings even if he expresses it differently. Percy still cared about his family. Percy “had gone to send an owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, then shut himself up in his dormitory” when Ginny was taken into the Chamber, clearly distressed (US CoS 295). He was also looking out for her earlier in the book, monitoring her health and how she was dealing with the new environment (the Pepper-Up potion was a good example), something Ron and the twins never did. Likewise, the letter he sends to Ron in OotP is meant to help him. Obviously its contents made Ron upset, but it was written and sent with the best of intentions. The fact that he later ignores his father at the Ministry is a sign that he’s actually in emotional pain over the situation. He doesn’t just go back to normal. He is distressed over the situation just as the others are.
Which is interesting when you consider how little the Weasleys did to get Percy back. Aside from Molly, not a single Weasley tried to contact Percy otherwise. If it was Ron who’d left the family, I’m a hundred percent sure more of the family would have gone after him and tried to work things out. But they didn’t with Percy because no one liked him because of /who he was/. Which is fine if you’re not family but as a family member? He was rejected before he even made the break.
One thing that also gets to me is the apology in Deathly Hallows.
“‘I was a fool!’ Percy roared, so loudly that Lupin nearly dropped his photograph. ‘I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a - a -’
’Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron,’ said Fred.
Percy swallowed.
‘Yes, I was!’
‘Well, you can’t say fairer than that,’ said Fred, holding out his hand to Percy.
Mrs. Weasley burst into tears. She ran forward, pushed Fred aside, and pulled Percy into a strangling hug, while he patted her on the back, his eyes on his father.
‘I’m sorry, Dad,’ Percy said.
Mr. Weasley blinked rather rapidly, then he too hurried to hug his son.
‘What made you see sense, Perce?’ inquired George.
‘It’s been coming on for a while,’ said Percy, mopping his eyes under his glasses with a corner of his traveling cloak. ‘But I had to find a way out and it’s not so easy at the Ministry, they’re imprisoning traitors all the time. I managed to make contact with Aberforth and he tipped me off ten minutes ago that Hogwarts was going to make a fight of it, so here I am.’
’Well, we do look to our prefects to take a lead at times such as these,’ said George in a good imitation of Percy’s most pompous manner. ‘Now let’s get upstairs and fight, or all the good Death Eaters’ll be taken’” (US DH 605-606).
First, note that Percy did try to get away. After OotP, Scrimgeour replaced Fudge; objectively, Scrimgeour was a pretty good Minister. (Obviously he said things Harry didn’t agree with, but you can understand WHY he said them.) There was no reason for Percy to leave then. And once DH hit? Well, he was trying to. It wasn’t that he didn’t change his mind until the very end-he didn’t want to be there during that year-but he had no choice. Especially because he had no where to go.
Percy walks back in, obviously ready to help them in a situation where they will need EVERY wand they can get. Not a single Weasley makes a move toward him, goes to forgive him despite the fact that they’re this great family. It takes Fred essentially laying down conditions-those things he should agree to having been-and Percy agreeing to them blindly for the family to reconcile. It takes Percy, the son, apologizing for something that was begun by the father’s remark, the father who couldn’t bring himself to apologize. Arthur seems like a fine father on the surface, but the more I dig under his character the more annoyed I get.
Anyway, that will end my Percy essay because I’m running out of time, though I’m sure I’ll be posting around with more Percy stuff. I’d like to end by saying that I’m not saying you need to agree with everything Percy did, but I urge you to see his perspective and realize it was NOT all his fault.